Volume 3: Dragon and Snake Movement Chapter 417: Xie Sheng's Marriage, a Guest in the Guildhall
Zhang Shou returned to Beijing yesterday, and he was very successful. Today, he suddenly ignored his vacation and came to the Imperial College. The people in the Doctoral Hall were naturally nervous for a while. But when Zhang Shou came, he first met Zhou Jijiu and Luo Siye, and they had a pleasant conversation. The doctors and teaching assistants outside who were listening carefully heard Zhang Shou talk about the second enrollment of Jiuzhang Hall, and then they gradually felt relieved.
After Zhang Shou said goodbye and left, a doctor in his early thirties in the doctoral hall breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Anyway, if we have to make trouble, we will continue to make trouble with the Jiuzhang Hall, and it will not involve the Sixth Hall. As long as there is no Xie Wanquan, that will be enough."
As soon as he finished speaking, he noticed that there was silence all around him. His heart skipped a beat and he realized that he had said the wrong thing and should not have mentioned that taboo name.
Sure enough, the next moment, he heard a faint voice: "Can you please stop mentioning that kid? He is now like a fish in water in the Daming Public School of Lu Shangshu... ahem, Lu Jijiu. Many poor boys have become his disciples, and they are all proud to hold their heads high. Do you know what people say about him? He is an upright man who is willing to break with his teachers of low character and ruin his own future!"
"Dr. Zhang has been traveling for several months. As soon as he came back, he came to Jiuzhang Hall to check the students' homework without taking a rest. You all stay in the Imperial College all day long, but you don't care about your students. Instead, you gather here to gossip. Aren't you too idle?"
Luo Siye suddenly came out from the inner room and gave a reprimand, which once again suppressed the discussions outside. However, no one said a word about what Luo Siye said.
Nowadays, teachers hired by wealthy families, or private school teachers who teach a few students at home, do assign homework to students regularly, and then read it carefully, comment on it and give guidance.
However, when it comes to the level of academies, because there are so many students, most teachers will only select students they value and give them detailed instruction. Ordinary students may not even receive comments once a year.
As for the Imperial College… you can imagine that in its heyday, the highest institution of learning had 4,000 to 5,000 people or even more. From the chief priest and the dean, to the doctors, assistant teachers, and schoolmasters in the doctoral hall, to the petty officials in the various halls below, there were no more than 50 people in total! Of these 50 people, more than half were engaged in pure management work. The rest might not even be enough to teach, let alone correct homework?
Moreover, after Emperor Gaozong's reform, the doctors appointed by Emperor Taizu became doctors of the Five Classics... Those doctors who had passed the imperial examinations usually only taught what they were good at, and the lectures were counted. Who had the time to read the essays of the students one by one? It would take days and nights to finish reading them all!
Therefore, it is no surprise that the Imperial Academy was completely defeated by those academies in terms of cultivating talents. How can a big-pot academy with thousands of students, or an academy where most of the students are there to get a good reputation and then find a job, compare with private academies with dozens of students taking the elite route and hundreds of students taking the broad route?
This is why the Banshan Hall and Jiuzhang Hall have different personnel compositions and are almost semi-independent from the original Imperial College, so Zhang Shou can let go with the support of the emperor. Anyway, it will not shake the foundation of the six halls. Now that the Banshan Hall has a branch hall, the number of people has dropped sharply from the first hall to the third hall. The original large house has been given to the Ruxing Hall, and most people have nothing to say.
As for the fight with Zhang Shou, with Yang Yiming's painful lesson before him, who would want to go against Zhang Shou again?
Zhang Shou didn't know that his sudden visit to the Imperial College to check homework would actually cause the doctors and teaching assistants a lot of trouble.
After inspecting his own territory, he left the Imperial College and reunited with Ah Liu, and retrieved the horse. He then took Ah Liu to Lu Wan's Daming Public School. Because he learned from Lu Sanlang yesterday that the public school, which was only a plan when he left Beijing, not only had a place to run the school, but also had the first batch of students.
In the inner city of the capital, where every inch of land is valuable, not only did Lu Sanlang, the capable father, get a piece of land with a house, but Zhang Shou also saw the brand new archway at the gate with the four characters "Da Ming Public School" written in a flamboyant style, and the emperor's seal on the signature - as for how he recognized the small seal, it was because of the five characters "Zhao Ming Pavilion Master", and the same seal was also on the calligraphy given to him by the emperor.
Xie Wanquan, who heard the news, was no longer depressed, but full of energy. He told Zhang Shou that Lu Wan was just going to discuss sponsorship with several guilds, and then he took Zhang Shou to inspect the houses with a smile on his face, and then talked about the autumn recruitment.
When Zhang Shou heard the words "primary school" and "middle school" from him, and thought of the message he had passed on to Lu Wan through Lu Sanlang, he suddenly felt an indescribable emotion. Of course, what made him even more sad was Xie Wanquan's endless introduction.
"Primary school only teaches arithmetic such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and reading and writing. Because they are all from poor families, we originally wanted to divide the class into batches every five days, half a day each time. However, even children of seven or eight years old have to help with housework at home, so even if reading at night hurts the eyes, oil lamps or candles are all very expensive. So after discussing with Lu Jijiu, we decided to hold some evening classes..."
"The reason why division is not taught in arithmetic is that most people don't use it in daily life. If there are people who are talented in arithmetic, once the students who come to Jiuzhang Hall to take part-time classes discover them, they will select them and provide them with various forms of support such as scholarships..."
"We have just recruited the first batch of 300 elementary school students and are taking classes in rotation. As for middle school, Lu Jijiu thinks we can't rush into it, because without a complete elementary education, opening middle school classes might not be worth the effort... In fact, the most important thing is that we don't have the teaching materials."
"The first and second volumes of the new edition of Ge's Mathematics are okay, but after reading the rest, I found that the difficulty increases dramatically from the fraction level. I think it may not be suitable for those children who just want to be able to read and do math and find a good job. After all, many of them are not even from poor families, let alone students."
After taking Zhang Shou for a long tour and talking a lot until his mouth was dry, Xie Wanquan realized that most of what he had just said was just showing off in front of Guan Gong...because a large part of it was told to him by Lu Wan, and as for Lu Wan, it seemed that according to Lu Sanlang, he learned it from Zhang Shou.
He coughed awkwardly, feeling that he had gotten carried away. After all, if it weren't for the students from Jiuzhang Hall taking turns to teach, he wouldn't be able to handle it all by himself. But before he could open his mouth, he was almost choked to death by Zhang Shou's next words.
"Has Lu Jijiu ever asked you whether Mr. Xie is married?"
Xie Wanquan blushed and was about to skip this topic, but suddenly he thought of Lu Wan's sincere and meaningful attitude when she talked to him several times, and he was stunned. Could it be really like what Zhang Shou said? Lu Wan didn't appreciate his talent, but appreciated something else about him? But then he thought of a more important question.
Lu Wan has three sons, but he has no daughters!
He couldn't help but complain, "I didn't expect that someone as serious as Dr. Zhang would joke around!"
"I'm not kidding. Men should get married when they are old enough, and women should get married when they are old enough. Do you dare to say that you never thought of finding a son-in-law from the list?" Zhang Shou deliberately continued to tease. Seeing that Xie Wanquan's face turned red with embarrassment, thinking of the arrogance when this guy and Tang Ming ran to Rongshui Village to pick a fight with him, he just felt that the young man in front of him was actually quite cute.
It seems that he has no right to call others young... He is several years younger than others now, well, continue to act young...
Zhang Shou did not just tease him, but smiled and said, "Don't think I am kidding you. You broke off your friendship with your former nominal teacher, which inevitably affected your reputation. Even if the people are on your side, you must know that those who write history books and literati notes are scholars. You must at least train your students to be presentable, so that you can rely on them to fight against public opinion."
"So, before that, since Lu Jijiu thinks highly of you, you might as well ask him for help to resolve your lifelong affairs. In this way, you can dedicate your life and descendants to the great cause of Daming Public School."
Even though Ah Liu, who was standing outside the door, was always serious, he couldn't help but curl his lips at this moment, thinking that his young master's temper was really hard to describe. He seemed to be tolerant and generous, but that was because his enemies would be eaten up in a blink of an eye! Forget about the idiot like Yang Yiming, look at Zhang Chen and Zhu Er back then, and Xie Wanquan now?
When Zhang Shou fooled Xie Wanquan into a daze, he agreed to compile Chinese teaching materials suitable for primary school students himself - the word "Chinese" was also said by Zhang Shou - and then handed it over to Lu Sanlang's bookshop for printing. Only then did he say goodbye and leave with satisfaction.
As for the trivial matter of not meeting Lu Wan, he didn't take it to heart at all - it would be better if he didn't meet her. Lu Wan, who was shrewd and calculating, was much more difficult to deal with than Xie Wanquan, who was as young as a scallion! It would be even better if someone overheard what he said and reported it to Lu Wan.
When he led Ah Liu out of the huge memorial archway of the public school, he couldn't help but look up at the sun that had already passed its zenith. Then he remembered that because he had eaten breakfast late, Ah Liu also had a bag of vegetable dumplings in his pocket when he came out, so he went to the Imperial College and Daming Public School one after another and completely forgot about having lunch. Thinking of this, he turned his head and looked at Ah Liu.
As the saying goes, "Birds of a feather flock together." Ah Liu is now considered a competent food seeker.
"Ah Liu, do you know where to get some delicious food at this hour?"
"There are many restaurants in the capital that provide food all day long, but not many of them are delicious." Ah Liu thought about it very seriously, and then his eyes lit up and said, "There are a few good restaurants in those guild halls in the outer city. Moreover, because there are many merchants and scholars coming and going, they keep the stoves on to cook all day long. Why don't we go there and take a look?"
Zhang Shou was just teasing Ah Liu, but when he heard the young man mention the guild hall, he immediately thought of Manager Hua, who was already in charge of the Suzhou Guild Hall. After a little thought, he smiled and said, "Okay, let's go out of the city and find a guild hall to have lunch."
However, Ah Liu did not agree immediately, but asked seriously: "Aren't you going to ask the young lady to join us?"
"It's already past lunch time. If I go to see her again, is it like asking someone to have afternoon tea?" After Zhang Shou made a joke, he couldn't help but think seriously. When he was in the Imperial College, he often used tea and snacks to replenish his energy during the break between the two classes in the afternoon. In this case, afternoon tea seems to be something that can be promoted among the right people...
There are afternoon teas these days, but most of them are Chinese snacks such as various cakes, sweet soups, candied fruits, steamed snacks, etc. Although milk tea is high in calories, it may be very suitable for girls... But although milk tea is good, milk tea seems to be better than black tea? By the way, tea exports are in large sales, is there black tea now? But speaking of black tea, black tea seems to be more suitable for European cakes and biscuits.
Zhang Shou was preparing to have a late lunch, but his mind was thinking about English afternoon tea instead of Chinese afternoon tea. He rode his horse and left the inner city in a trance. If it weren't for Ah Liu who was beside him to control the direction, he didn't know where he would go. As for the eager gazes of some young girls and wives along the way, he had long been accustomed to ignoring them.
Ah Liu was already used to Zhang Shou's occasional distraction, so he just grabbed Zhang Shou's reins in his own hands. He found the Suzhou Guild Hall in a moment, but after a slight hesitation, he pulled Zhang Shou's horse and stopped outside the Yangzhou Guild Hall opposite.
He threw the reins of his horse to a receptionist who came out to greet him, then turned around to help Zhang Shou get off the horse. Seeing that his young master was still in deep thought and walked straight in without even having time to look up at the sign, he did not care about the horse, and helped Zhang Shou inside with both hands. When they passed the threshold, he did not forget to remind him repeatedly.
It was already past mealtime, and the huge teahouse on the first floor of the guild hall only had two or three tables of guests. Most of them were businessmen . When a waiter saw two unfamiliar guests without luggage coming in, he knew they were here to eat, so he immediately rushed over with a smile. But as soon as he said "old customer", he was stunned by the menu that Ah Liu announced.
"Crispy fish noodles, soup dumplings, shrimp roe wontons, tofu skin dumplings, three-piece dumplings, candied lotus root..."
After naming eight dishes in one breath, Ah Liu raised two fingers to the stunned waiter and said, "Give me two servings of all of them."
As soon as the waiter heard this, he knew that the person was actually a regular customer who had been here before. However, seeing that the master and servant were both about sixteen or seventeen years old, and neither of them was tall and strong, he did not care whether it was in accordance with the rules for the master and servant to sit at the same table, and could not help but remind them: "Old customer, I am afraid that the table may not be able to accommodate two servings each. Can you two really eat it? It would be a pity if it were wasted."
Zhang Shou didn't come to his senses until he heard the word "waste". Without hearing the previous conversation, he said disapprovingly: "We both have a good appetite, just go ahead and do it."
However, seeing the waiter responding timidly and seeing several tea drinkers not far away all stealing glances at him, Zhang Shou felt something was wrong. But Ah Liu looked calm, and he could only think that with this big eater backing him up, it shouldn't be a big deal. However, after waiting for a long time, he was finally startled when he saw three waiters carrying long plates full of dishes.
What does Ah Liu want to do? Does he think they are pigs? Can two people eat so much?
